A large circular saw blade makes a great top for a small table

Add a mixture of materials and a little design flare, and you have a great side table for holding a glass of your favourite tipple!

I'll show you how I made mine, and you can either copy it or adapt it as you please

I'd love to see any you make, so please use the comments section to post photo's

A short video of my build is available to tie all the instructions together if needed

Step 1: Gather Your Materials

I used:

Large circular saw blade (with dull teeth!)
Plywood (I used construction grade)
Copper pipe 1¾"
Threaded rod, penny washers and nuts - M6 / ¼"
Glue
Finish (I used lacquer)

Step 2: Making the Base & Top Support

The base and the top support are both made up of layers of plywood

Four layers for the base, and three layers for the top support

I cut out circles on the band saw to approximate the shapes, before clamping them together and roughing the organic shapes with a carving disc on the angle grinder

If I did it again, I would glue the pieces up as plain circles straight away, and then start shaping them - this would offer more ways to clamp them when carving

Step 3: Bore Holes for Pipe and Threaded Rod

Because my design calls for an angled leg, I first angled the drill press table accordingly before boring counter bore and through holes to accept the rods, penny washers, and nuts. the counter bores being on the lower side of the base, and the top side of the top support

I then bored an angled round mortise for the copper pipe to seat in, in both the top of the base, and the underside of the top support.

Step 4: Make the Leg

My copper pipe was actually quite thick walled, and probably didn't need strengthening to resist bending, but since it's an easy thing to do I did it anyway.

I strengthen the pipe by preparing a snug fitting hexagonal shaft, which has a hole through it's centre to support the treaded rod.

The shaft is made by tilting the table saw blade at 30° to the vertical, giving a 60° bevel to the plywood lath as it is fed through. Reversing the lath and feeding through again, produces half of the shaft, so long as the fence is adjusted for the correct width - start over-sized, and creep up on a snug fit

To make the central hole, I simply cut a series of kerfs in the middle of both halves. The rod should just be able to slide through

The two halves are glued together to complete the shaft

The angled leg design required the ends to be cut on the angle, which I did on the mitre saw, using an indicator to make sure both angles were cut in parallel planes - the leg is not rotated between cuts

A dry fit of the base, leg, and top support, allows a length of threaded rod to be marked for length, before being cut to fit

Step 5: Final Shaping the Base and Top Support

I glued up all the layers for the base and top support, before final shaping

Final shaping produces the smooth organic forms of these two components, and is achieved by first refining the shapes with a carbide 'dounut' on the angle grinder, rasps, and finally fine files and abrasive paper

Step 6: Finishing

The top and base were finish sanded, before applying a coat of sanding sealer

They were sanded again, before applying a few coats of lacquer

A wipe on varnish, or finishing oil would be just as suitable

Applying a finish to the copper would prevent oxidation, keeping it bright, but I chose to leave it, and have plans for it in future (which may end up as a future instructable!)

Step 7: Assembly

Now it's time to assemble the whole table

The treaded rod is passed through the base, leg, and top support, and a penny washer and nut attached at each end. Tightening these up makes the structure rock solid

The saw blade can either be drilled and attached with counter sunk steel screws, or stuck with a contact adhesive or similar

WARNING

You should use a dull blade, or better still, round over all the teeth tips, to avoid injury